Mike & Cathy's Blog: A Tribute to Boom

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. Our family dog, Boom, peacefully passed on to doggy heaven just after Christmas last month. It was time, he was well over 14 years old and had outlived the average life of a labrador retriever. However, it doesn't make losing him any less painful. We've had several family dogs (Mookie, Sammy, Perther, Pepper & Rowdy), but there was something about Boom that just captured our heart--his beautiful and soulful puppy dog eyes that remained until the day he died and his gentle heart and his unconditional love. Boom was a special pup to us and he will be dearly missed. If you came to our wedding festivities in 1996, you met Boom at our house at our family BBQ a few days before the wedding. That was over 11 years ago!

What makes saying goodbye for me so difficult, is that he lived in Montana with Mom and Dad, so I last saw him in July of 2007. Perhaps it was a good thing, as we did not witness his final decline in health. I thought he'd be around forever and never really thought about his increasing age. He'd been there to witness much of my adult life--graduating from college, my wedding, graduating from law school, hanging out with me while studying for the bar exam, the birth of Vanessa, Jack, Josie & even Colette (though he never got to lick her).

That was what so great about Boom, he was always there, waiting for a friendly pat on the head or a nice walk. Though he never really like to "retrieve", nor did he like to swim oddly enough, he was always good for a nice toe lick. We will miss our faithful Boom, always a pup at heart. May he rest in peace in doggy heaven. We love you, Boom Boom.

Boom as a pup